Tag Archives: Featured

We do not like Purchasing Power or Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) as measurement for currencies. For us, the trade balance decides if a currency is overvalued. Only the trade balance can express productivity gains, while the REER assumes constant productivity in comparison to trade partners. Who has read Michael Pettis, knows that a rising trade surplus may also be caused by a higher savings rate while the trade...

Interview de Vincent Held, auteur du Crépuscule de la Banque nationale suisse, par Orbis Terrae, Bernard Antoine Rouffaer,    janvier 2019 L’ouvrage de Vincent Held aborde une série de sujets brûlants : la politique d’affaiblissement du francs suisse menée par la Banque nationale suisse (BNS), l’imbrication de cette politique avec celles des banques privées suisses, la politique d’acquisition d’obligations d’Etat en...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has named Raghuram Rajan as this year’s speaker for its Karl Brunner Distinguished Lecture Series. Professor Rajan has made outstanding contributions to both economic practice and economic research on the global stage. His roles have included Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 until 2016 and Chief Economist at the IMF between 2003 and 2006. He has held a professorship at the...

Two ministers, two policies, one vote: Alain Berset (left) and Ueli Maurer. (© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer) The Swiss government has launched its campaign in favour of the upcoming national vote on a reform of the corporate tax and pension systems. Ministers for health and finance, Alain Berset and Ueli Maurer, presented their case at a press conference on Monday, urging citizens to vote ‘yes’ on May 19. Berset and...

While oil prices rebounded in January 2019 around the world, outside of crude commodities continued to struggle. According to the World Bank’s Pink Sheet, base metal prices fell another 1.8% on average from December. On an annual basis, these commodities as a group are about 16% below where they were in January 2018. The last time they had fallen by that much it was May 2016. World Bank Pink Sheet Commodity Indices...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.06% at 1.1349 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 18(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: In quiet turnover, the US dollar slipped lower against most of the major currencies to start the new week. The news stream is light and the US markets are closed today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was up five of the past six...

The main issues for investors have not changed. There are three dominant ones: Trade, growth, and Brexit. Unfortunately, there won’t be any closure in the week ahead, and that may make short-term participants reluctant to turn more aggressive. United States The US reported exceptionally poor December retail sales and January industrial output figures. Growth forecasts were adjusted. The St. Louis Fed’s GDP Now tracker,...

Switzerland – and Bern – will provide a “highly favorable environment for breakthrough innovations”. (© Keystone / Peter Schneider) Car systems manufacturer Wabco Automotive has opted to move its global headquarters from Brussels to the Swiss capital, Bern. The company has plans to set up a competence centre in autonomous driving in collaboration with Swiss universities. “Switzerland is world-renowned for providing a...

Ignore Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Those are merely an appetizer, an intentional preamble to whet the appetite of hungry consumers looking to splurge. The real action comes in December. People look, some buy, after Thanksgiving, but as anyone counts down the actual twelve days of Christmas and celebrates the eight crazy nights of Hanukkah that’s when the retail industry makes its bank. In 2016, the month of December...

A BLS train in Kandersteg station in the Bernese Oberland region. (© Keystone / The BLS train company, which operates several routes in the regions around Bern, is to cut some 170 positions over the coming four years, for reasons of efficiency and automation. In a move criticized on Thursday by rail unions, BLS announced the cuts as part of planned efficiency gains that aim to save between CHF50-60 million ($49.8-59.2...